Crosses honouring the 58 victims of the mass shooting at the country music concert in Las Vegas.
Photograph: Sipa USA/Rex

Trevor Noah, the South African comedian who presents Comedy Central’s Daily Show, strikes a depressing note. He arrived in America two years ago – and counted 30 mass shootings since. “People are becoming more accustomed to the news. We’re shocked, sad, thoughts and prayers, then people will say, whatever you do… don’t talk about guns.”

Which is why, in a macabre way, Las Vegas left me curiously unmoved. Senseless violence? Yes. Communities grieving? Yes. Ways forward? Nil. Exhaustive coverage, somehow to such a set routine as to seem almost beside the point. All the Mandalay Bay horror had to offer, appropriately enough, was the smashing of mass gun death records. Bigger, bloodier, and just worse.